Verizon, MetroPCS Ask Court for Time to Amend Net Neutrality Briefs

Verizon and MetroPCS have asked for more time and space from
a federal court to make their case against the FCC's network neutrality rules.

That was prompted by the decision of that same court Monday
in Verizon's challenge to the FCC's data roaming rules Cellco Partnership
[Verizon] v. FCC.

In a motion filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
D.C. Circuit on Wednesday, Verizon and MetroPCS asked for two more weeks from
the current Dec. 6 deadline to file the latest briefs in their network
neutrality challenge so they can incorporate this week's roaming decision into
their filings, and for 1,000 additional words (the limit is 6,000) for their
joint brief and 350 additional words for MetroPCS' separate filing (the limit
is 2,000 words).

They point out that the roaming case, in which the court
upheld the FCC's application of voice roaming obligations to data, deals with
similar issues and was released only two days before the Dec. 6 deadline.

"Among other things, Cellco Partnership addresses the
meaning of the Communications Act's bans on common carriage regulation,"
they point out.

"Appellants believe in good faith that they need a brief
period of additional time and a modest amount of additional words in order
properly to analyze and address the effect of Cellco Partnership on the
arguments in their reply briefs and ultimately on the case, so as to provide
the Court with a consolidated analysis of the issues that avoids piecemeal
briefing."

The companies asked for an expedited ruling given that the
deadline is Thursday, Dec. 6, and added that if the court can't decide by then,
it should suspend the Dec.6 deadline until it does rule on the request. The
court has yet to set a date for oral argument.